Deja Vu

Review of the Classic NES game Deja Vu

B+

Apr 08, 2009 11:33PM PST

I recently sat down and played through the NES game Deja Vu a ton of times, going for a new fastest completion, and figured I'd review it.

For anyone that's never played Deja Vu before, it's a point and click adventure in the same vein as Shadowgate by Kemco Seika. You wake up in a bathroom stall, unsure of who and where you are. As you exit the stall you're forced to look into the mirror, catching a glimpse of what you look like. Heading out of the bathroom, down the hall, into an abandoned bar, you're faced with going through several doors. After going up the stairs and down a hall you end up in an office with a body slumped over a desk. Oh oh! What did you do?!

The whole point to Deja Vu is figuring out who dunit and clearing your name. A pretty good mystery game that has you taking and using a bunch of items through the course it. Along the way you'll play a slot machine (and win), shoot somebody, take a cab to various locations you uncover, punch one or two people out, possibly get mugged, dispose of planted evidence and finally collect enough evidence to clear your good name.

The mechanics are fairly simple. You have several options at your disposal, including taking, leaving, examining, using, speaking, opening and so on, that you'll be using throughout the game. All these commands are found at the bottom of the screen while your inventory is located on the right hand side of the screen. The main playfield takes up the rest of the screen and is navigated by a cursor using your controller. You'll spend a lot of time pointing and clicking stuff that needs to be opened, looked at, collected or shot. You get the idea. All in an effort to find medication that can help you regain your memories and remember who's setting you up for a murder AND a kidnapping. Only by examining certain items and uncovering new destinations will you be able to solve the crime and save the day.

So why play this old game? It has an interesting story, good music (for NES), decent graphics and a great ending if finished correctly. I mean C'mon, who doesn't want to solve a mystery and save the day. Overall, I give this old NES game an